Page 84 of The Seducer
First there was Isobel’s speech followed by a sequence of highlights from our visit. I rather enjoyed seeing what some of my countrymen had been up to. It looked as if my program had been the most boring of them all, but at least no one had made me sing with a choir, dance ballet at a public performance, or made me ride one of those bicycles. Richard cringed when the large screen showed a bit of his humiliating ballet performance.
After that, Khan took the stage and spoke of great things to come, promising that if it were up to him every woman who wanted to come to the Northlands would be welcomed with open arms.
A horde of women standing in front of the stage gave loud cheers. Many of them were holding signs with small catchphrases such as “You can fight over me”, “I’ll be your prize”, “Break down the wall”, and “I’ll marry an Nman.”
Isobel’s smile stiffened but she didn’t shut Khan or the women down.
“We have a long way to go before our nations can be fully integrated,” Khan continued in his speech. “But for those of you who are still in doubt that we are men of integrity and honor, I want to remind you that the few Motlander women who have chosen to cross the border have also chosen to stay. That should tell you something.”
“Psst,” Magni called out to me. “Laura is here.”
“Where?” I whispered back and scanned the audience again.
“Over by my drone.” Even though he was whispering, I could still hear the excitement in his voice. He was right, Laura stood leaning against Magni’s sleek red drone, parked on this side of the border just next to Khan’s. The two machines were huge compared to the community drone I’d been flying around in with Hans these last days.
Khan was coming to the end of his speech when we all felt the earth shake. Everyone was exchanging glances, and Hans muttered to me, “Did you feel that?”
“I think we just had a small earthquake,” Khan said with a comforting smile to the audience. “Nothing to be afraid of.”
Another quake, this time bigger, had the crowd moving around in anxiety.
Khan immediately turned to Pearl. “Are you okay, honey?”
“Yes, I’m fine, but maybe…” Her last words were overshadowed by loud screams when the earth shook with such force that equipment and people fell over.
Roaring cracking sounds made me spin around to see the earth opening in long narrow slits, and pieces of the border wall crumbling down in places. Warning sirens were going off and the sky filled with small border drones that blinked red and kept repeating warnings not to move.
Everybody was running in different directions in a chaotic panic. I had experienced minor earthquakes before, but none had ever lasted this long or been this violent. This had to be at least an eight on the Richter scale.
Being a doctor, I immediately searched for people who might be hurt. With everyone screaming, running, and tumbling to the ground, it was impossible to get an overview.
“Get the women to the drones,” Khan shouted, and Magni was already sprinting toward where we had last seen Laura.
“My mom,” I heard Pearl shouting to me as she was being pulled to safety by Khan.
Isobel was trying to calm people down, but it was the wrong time and place, and she was in danger of being trampled by the crowd. When she wouldn’t listen to me, I picked her up and carried her to Khan’s drone, which was filling up with other women as well.
“Get it in the air,” I shouted to Khan, “and stay there until we’re sure it’s over.”
He nodded and pointed to Magni’s drone. “Fill it up.”
With a nod, I closed his door up front and helped one more woman on board before the drone lifted from the ground.
“Where’s Laura?” I screamed at Magni, who stood on top of his drone with his eyes squinting and his head turning from side to side in his search.
“I can’t find her,” he shouted back at me.
Another deep rumble from the earth was accompanied by a large quake that had me falling to my knees.
“Lauraaaaa,” Magni was calling out from the bottom of his lungs, his hands to his mouth and a frantic expression on his face. “Lauraaaa.”
Trees were uprooted and fell like toothpicks while every available drone lifted to the sky with people trying to save themselves.
“Lauraaaa,” I shouted with Magni, but she was nowhere to be seen. When the rumbling and the screaming finally stopped, the whole area looked like a Giant had thrown a tantrum. Large parts of the wall between the Motherlands and the Northlands had collapsed and I could see through to my home country.
I pointed to a group of trees that leaned toward the ground at different angles, with roots coming out of the ground. “I see movements over there.”
“Over here.” The sound of Laura’s scream had Magni jumping down from the roof of his drone, and sprinting to the trees with me on his heels.
